If you want ripoffs of Aliens, then look no farther than Carnosaur. It’s actually a total rip of Jurassic Park and Aliens, except set in a big warehouse instead of a tropical island. The final confrontation has the young hero mounting up in a large construction bulldozer thingy and facing off with a T-Rex, just like Ripley’s loader battle with the Alien Queen.
Oh, and it’s absolutely terrible, too.
American Anthem isn’t just Purple Rain in gymnastics tights instead of leather pants, it was even directed by the same guy – Albert Magnoli. He should be ashamed.
Love Don’t Cost a Thing** is a “remake” (more like ripoff) of [url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000584/]Can’t Buy Me Live. Time didn’t improve the story one whit.
Ghost Ship is pretty much Event Horizon at sea. I’m sure Event Horizon is a rip off of something else.
I can’t claim credit. I’m citing The James Bond Bedside Companion which, in turn, is quoting from Bond fan pieces in fan magazines like Bondage – “The Spy Who Lived Twce”
I see so far because I’m standing on the shoulders of James Bond Fanatics.
It’s not the same plot, but there are a heck of a lot of similarities between Far and Away and Titanic.
Shannen in FaA and Rose in Titanic are both feisty redheads from prestigious families who yearn to be independent.
Joseph in FaA is a social nobody who wants to go to America, where anyone can pursue his own destiny. Jack in Titanic is a social nobody who has already been pursuing his own destiny.
Shannen’s mother, played by Frances Fisher, wants Shannen to wear a tight, high button collar ("'Tis better to choke than to be vulgar"), and marry a man she doesn’t love because he’s even better off financially. Rose’s mother, played by Frances Fisher, wants Rose to wear a tight, restricting corset, and marry a man she doesn’t love because that’s their only financial option. (“We’re women. Our choices are never easy.”)
Both couples travel by boat to America.
Joseph teaches Shannen to do laundry by hand; she later uses this skill when she and her parents are camped out before the land rush. Jack teaches Rose to spit; she later uses this skill to repel Cal.
Shannen drinks gin and plays ragtime piano with other working-class women. Rose drinks beer and dances with the steerage passengers.
Shannen asserts her independence by becoming a dance-hall girl. Rose asserts her independence by posing nude.
Joseph almost dies at the end of the film; Shannen weeps over him until he revives. Jack does die towards the end of the film; Rose weeps over him but he doesn’t revive. (Okay, it’s not an exact parallel.)
Not my idea, but THE LION KING rips off HAMLET big time.
One time I was half-listening to The History Channel (show about The Dambusters) and when I heard “I’d say about 20 guns. Some of the suurface, some on the tower”, I was like…huh?
Anyways, my contribution to the thread would be “Demolition Man” and “Judge Dredd”.
Talk about identical movies…
-Joe
from Gerard Alessandrini’s “Forbidden Hollywood”:
Everyone loves Forrest, so why does no one care
That this same plot was used before in a film called Being There?
None of this is unusual. I forget the exact number but there are only a few basic plots, or for that matter jokes.
There is Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets Girl, which is basically the Book of Job in disguise, or the Riches to Rags to Riches.
Or just plain Rags to Riches. Horatio Alger or perhaps Jane Eyre.
There is the Improbabla Hero Saves The Day. Johnny Come Lately with James Cagney.
The lead charachter goes through a series of adventures.
The Villain Finally Gets His Comeuppance.
It does seem to me that the movie The Sting was pretty original, but maybe it was just a slightly disguised The Villain Finally Gets His Comeuppance.
Totally disagree. Both involved retarded men finding success, but the similarities end there. Only a few characters realized Chance was slow, the rest mistook his simplicity for wisdom. Everyone knew Forrest was slow, but the movie would have us say his simplicity *was * wisdom, and the rest was luck. IOW, Being There was making fun of the exact attitudes expressed by Forrest Gump.
Forrest bumbles his way through the 60’s, and ends up a wealthy, but simple father.
Chance stays in one place, and ends up being set up as president.